


past the first impressions

by superficialities



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Games, Gen, Jisung is called Andy a lot in this fic, Just a little bit of romance, M/M, Minor Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, NCT Dream Ensemble-centric, OT7 NCT Dream, Secret Identity, Shy Park Jisung (NCT), Tutoring, Virtual Reality, mentions of dying but its inside the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29567649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superficialities/pseuds/superficialities
Summary: “I think I saw them in the school tournament, they were watching your match against Harvey.” Renjun says, pointing at Mark. “It really makes sense now that I think about it, they probably heard us talking about the dungeon yesterday during lunch and went inside at the same time as us.”“That’s kind of creepy” Donghyuck points out “and they’re like lowkey obsessed with Mark, they were watching his match, then they were stalking him in the woods inside the game and now they’re listening to our conversations at school. Definitely creepy.”“Maybe they have a crush on him and are shy about it” Jeno provides, always the optimistic one.“Or maybe that’s Mark’s ex trying to get on his good side again so they can get back together.” Chenle says, like the little shit that he is.—————Where a random player keeps appearing around Mark and his friends, and then helps them beat the hardest dungeon in the game, leaving without explanation as usual. Which makes them wonder about who exactly is this person and how in the hell they keep finding them.
Relationships: Mark Lee/Park Jisung (NCT)
Kudos: 45
Collections: Challenge #5 — I heard a secret..





	past the first impressions

**Author's Note:**

> hello!  
> this is my first time participating in the alw fic fest and actually my first time posting a fic too, so dont go too hard on me :D.  
> i'd like to thanks the fest mods for investing their time in this amazing fest and also a big thanks to the amazing person that was my beta and helped me by polishing the (many) little mistakes!  
> just to clear things up before you read, jisung is a freshman, the 00 line + chenle are sophomores (chenle skipped a year) and mark is a junior!  
> i hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it!!

It’s been close to twenty minutes since Mark started being followed by some shadow in the woods and maybe ten minutes since this same shadow has been drilling holes on the back of his head. _Did they even blink?_

He definitely should avoid staying out of the safe zones for too long, since being in the same group as Jaemin did put a target on his back, but he was stubborn and really liked exploring the game’s world.

"Can you come out of the shadows and attack me already? It's getting really creepy" Mark said, turning around and looking directly at the figure.

The other person yelped, surprised, and quickly logged out, leaving a very confused Mark behind.

"Goodbye, I guess..." He mumbled, frowning. 

—————

The next time Mark saw that player, he wasn’t alone. DREAM had decided to get together and try the new dungeon for what seemed to be the 100th time.

At first, they didn’t notice anything different, they went through the areas, using the same strategy that they always do, with Mark going first to get the mobs to focus him, followed by Donghyuck, who started casting AoE spells one after another, while Chenle, Jeno and Jaemin focused their attacks on the minibosses that were around the weaker mobs and Renjun focused on healing Mark, who took most of the attacks.

The group kept going like this until they reached the spot they couldn’t pass through, no matter what they tried. As usual, they stayed back for healing and to reset their buffs.

Renjun was finishing the cast of a buff when the masked player showed up from nowhere. 

His armor set was simple, probably just a custom-made outfit that only served as a visual like most players used. He wore all black clothes and the only pop of color was in his bright red scarf and mask.

“What the fuck?!” Donghyuck exclaimed when he noticed the figure popping out of nowhere. “Where the fuck did you come from?!”

When the rest of the group noticed the newcomer, most of them looked annoyed. They were once again being used by other lazy players that simply could not put on the effort to grow in the game without riding on other people’s hard work. Chenle was ready to go over to the random player and yell some profanities at them, when Mark jumped from where he was, surprising most of his members.

“You!” He stuttered out, getting confused looks from his friends. “He’s that one creepy person that was staring at me in the woods the other day!”

The person didn’t say anything, although it did look like he was embarrassed, if the way he was playing with his hands said anything. He ignored the stares and crouched down, touching the ground and conjuring a black magic circle that soon disappeared, leaving the small group with some state of invisibility. They could see each other’s avatars, as if they were ghosts, and they knew enough about invisibility spells to know how it worked.

The masked player didn’t leave enough time for them to question it, already starting to move forward in the direction of what they assumed was the boss of this dungeon.

“I think they want us to follow them.” Mark said.

“And you’re expecting us to do it? They’re walking directly to the boss, we’ll die.” Donghyuck retorted..

“I mean, it’s not like we weren’t going to die anyway, this is what? The eighteenth time we are trying this dungeon just this month?” Renjun said, shrugging. “I say we follow him, he’s strong enough to conjure a group invisibility spell, he might know something that we don’t.”

The rest of the group ends up agreeing with him, it’s not like they have anything to lose. So they follow the random masked person, who had stopped walking and was waiting for them to catch-up.

When they get close to the gigantic dragon that usually kills their characters with only three hits, they start to get ready to fight. They aren't expecting to go unnoticed by it, since usually, bosses are immune to invisibility. Except that this time, the boss stays completely still, sleeping soundly while the only sound that can be heard is his breath. The masked player signals for them to follow them to the side of the dragon, where his head rests over the tip of his tail It's the lowest part of the creature, where they can see what he’s so keen on protecting.

There, right in the middle of its nest, is a small portal that’s completely blended with the background. Their guide jumps over the boss’ tail and simply goes directly to the portal, so they quickly follow them, afraid that the invisibility spell is going to vanish once they enter the portal and all of their progress will be wasted.

When they’re safe and sound at the other side of the portal, they finally let out the breath that they’re holding.

“Holy shit! We passed it!” Jaemin screams inside the dark cavern, his voice echoing over the curved walls and waking up some bats, but he keeps smiling bigger than ever.

“Shhh” Renjun quickly says, turning his friend’s head to the big dark figure that’s circling the area of the cavern.

Luckily for them, they weren’t within the range to trigger the boss’ aggro so they were safe, but they weren’t taking any chances. Quickly the atmosphere morphed into a serious one, everyone got in their positions and focused on their surroundings, trying to look for anything that could help them in this battle. It seemed like this wasn’t going to be an easy one.

—————

The moment Mark Lee sets foot on school the next day he’s getting bombarded with questions from at least 70% of the school’s population. It’s not usual that a group of kids from your high school become the first people to ever finish the hardest dungeon in the biggest Virtual Reality MMORPG of the decade, and he should've expected this kind of treatment since he was there when the same thing happened to Jaemin when he became the first player to ever tame a boss in the game.

It took some time but soon he was able to run away from the crowd and lock himself inside the students’ council room, where he found the rest of his friends who looked as disheveled as him.

“Jesus Christ! How did you manage to survive this shit last year?” Mark asks Jaemin, who’s sitting on Jeno’s lap looking as unbothered as ever.

“I had and still have a very effective bodyguard.” He says, smiling fondly at Jeno, who tilts his head to the side, letting out a little confused sound that was very characteristic of him.

Donghyuck rolls his eyes, unimpressed. “Y’all are asking the wrong questions here.” He says “now, who the fuck was that person?! I checked the board when the announcement was made and their nickname is just a bunch of letters that don’t make any sense. Who the fuck names their character _‘CLTJD’?_ ”

“I’ve heard this name before.” Jaemin says suddenly, a frown on his face as he tries to remember where exactly he heard it. 

“I think I saw them in the school tournament, they were watching your match against Harvey.” Renjun says, pointing at Mark. “It really makes sense now that I think about it, they probably heard us talking about the dungeon yesterday during lunch and went inside at the same time as us.”

“That’s kind of creepy” Donghyuck points out “and they’re like lowkey obsessed with Mark, they were watching his match, then they were stalking him in the woods inside the game and now they’re listening to our conversations at school. Definitely creepy.”

“Maybe they have a crush on him and are shy about it” Jeno provides, always the optimistic one.

“Or maybe that’s Mark’s ex trying to get on his good side again so they can get back together.” Chenle says, like the little shit that he is.

Mark rolls his eyes. 

“She’s not like that, we were both on the same page when we broke up.” He says.

“The bell is about to ring, we’ll think about this later. They probably don’t want to be found, they were too eager to leave when we killed the boss, didn’t even wait for their share of the drops.” Mark says, taking his role as the oldest and rushing them out of the room “I’ll be a little late today, I have a tutoring session with the new transfer kid after school”

Soon the room is empty and they’re all out for their classes.

—————

After his last class for the day was over, Mark went to fetch Andy — the boy that needed tutoring — from his classroom. He hoped that Mrs. Smith, their English teacher, already told Andy that he would be getting a tutor. It would be a really awkward situation if he was the one to give him the news. 

People were already leaving the classroom when Mark got there and it didn’t take long for him to find the cute lanky freshman.

“Hey! Andy!” Mark called, going on his toes to try to catch the younger boy’s attention among the crowd.

When Andy finally noticed Mark outside his classroom, he widened his eyes, freezing in his spot for a moment.

“So… I’m hoping Mrs. Smith told you about the tutoring lessons?” Mark asks when he gets closer, which wakes the other boy from his shock.

“Oh! Yeah! The tutoring!” Andy exclaims suddenly, but quickly blushes, noticing that he was talking a little bit louder than he should “She- she told me about it.” He answers quietly and cringes internally about how awkward he’s being.

“Sweet!” Mark says “Is the library okay?” Andy’s eyebrows scrunch together and he tilts his head to the side in confusion. “Like, for the tutoring.” The older quickly clears up.

“Oh! Yeah, sure. I’m fine with anything”

Soon after that, they’re both sitting inside the school’s library.

“So, Andy, how-” Mark starts saying but quickly stops talking when he notices how the boy visibly cringes, he gets a little confused but soon figures it out. “What’s your Korean name?” the older asks right away. “All of my friends prefer using our other names when we’re with each other. You can call me Minhyung, too, if it makes you feel more comfortable” 

The younger boy was surprised, he wasn’t expecting to use his Korean name in America. He had thought he would be trapped with being called the English name. So he smiled, the biggest smile Mark has ever seen on the other boy’s face.

“I would love that!” He answers “Please, call me Jisung! Thank you so much Minhyung hyung!

That makes Mark’s heart flutter a bit, he’s used to being called hyung. Jeno and Jaemin call him that all the time and it never got close to sounding this cute.

He nods with a smile.

Maybe he doesn’t really mind the butterflies in his stomach.

—————

Things seemed to be working really smoothly with their tutoring session, but after around an hour, Jisung started losing his focus, and even though he looked like he was paying attention, he was just daydreaming while staring at Mark’s face.

The older boy notices that and calls Jisung’s name, trying to bring him back to earth but that isn’t enough to get the boy out of his mind, so he waves his hand in front of his face and gets a little frustrated — and impressed — when not even that is enough to wake him up.

“Jisung!”he calls louder. The boy jumps on his seat and blushes when he notices that he was out of it for a while. “Do you want to take a break?” He asks, a small smile in his lips.

“Yeah, sorry.” Jisung quickly apologizes “I’ll just wash my face and I’ll be back in a bit”

Mark nods and watches as the boy gets up and walks through the tables, snorting when he sees Jisung bumping his hips against a chair, _he’s so cute,_ he thinks.

He uses the break time to look at his messages just to see that Jaemin had just sent a text in the group chat.

> _nana: I KNOW WHERE I’VE HEARD THAT NAME BEFORE!!!_
> 
> _nana: remember when i was in korea for the holidays last year? i transferred my account to the server, right?_
> 
> _haechan: yeah, get to the point_
> 
> _nana: i’m getting there_
> 
> _nana: i was playing some pvps and when i went through the ranks i saw the name at the top 1 for the rogue class, i think it stuck in my head since it was a such weird name._

After reading that, Mark starts putting things together in his head. It was someone from Korea that was now in their school. Everything was pointing in one direction but he really didn’t want to believe what was right in front of him. _Maybe_ _it is someone else? The school is really big._

He’s lost in his thoughts when Jisung gets back from the bathroom and sits in front of him. Mark looks up and stares at the boy, a shocked look on his face.

“Is it you?” Mark asks, a little unsure. Jisung tilts his head in confusion, like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about “The player that helped us yesterday, was it you?”

The boy’s eyes widen in surprise. He stays there, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, his mouth opening and closing like he wants to say something but doesn’t really know what to say, basically confirming Mark’s suspicions.

“I-” He stutters out “I’m sorry!” his voice comes out in a high pitched yell “I’m really sorry, I- I’m not a creep, I swear!” Mark looks at him with sceptical eyes “I’m not! I just- The other day when you showed me around the school, you were just so nice to me! And then you told me we could be friends and I was just to fucking nervous to talk to you after that, so i saw you at the tournment and thought that maybe I’d be more confident in the game but i couldn’t and then you saw me and I just needed to get away” He rambles, “and then I heard you guys talking about the dungeon and I thought I could help since I’m always exploring dungeons and I finally figured that one out. But i couldn’t finish it alone and I didn’t have any friends in here so I thought i could go with you guys and finally make some friends. Ii was planning on revealing myself in the end but I got so nervous again. I just had to get out of there. I’m so sorry that I made you uncomfortable, I’ll talk to Mrs. Smith to find me another tutor and I swear I’ll not bother you anymore! I’m really sorry.” He finishes talking and rushes out of the door, even leaving his things on the table. Tears were forming in his eyes as he ran as fast as he could from the library and away from Mark, god, he felt so fucking stupid.

Mark was shocked with the boy’s outburst, but he quickly got their things and followed him.

“Jisung! Wait!” Mark screams when he’s out of the library.

The boy doesn’t stop running so Mark runs after him. It takes some time and they’re almost out of the school when he finally manages to catch up and grab Jisung’s hand.

“Wait!” He heaves out. He definitely should do more exercises outside of the game. He looks up to Jisung’s face and notices the tear streaks on his face, so he quickly runs his thumbs over his cheeks. “It’s okay. I don’t think you’re creepy.”

“But- You said-” Jisung tries speaking but is quickly interrupted by the older boy.

“I know, I admit it, i thought it was a little creepy when you followed me in the woods but who wouldn’t?” He says, smiling when Jisung snorts. “But I forgave you when you helped us in the dungeon, I thought that was really cool. And my friends thought so, too” Mark reassures him. “Well, most of them, Donghyuck is a little sceptical of you but he’ll change his mind in no time, he’s always supportive of the boys I like.”

At that Jisung’s breath hitches, his eyes widening cutely and soon Mark realizes just what he said.

“God! Please, forget I said that!” he blushed furiously. That must be a new record for him, he had barely developed the crush and had already managed to embarrass himself in front of him. “We can be just friends, I don’t mind, It’ll go away!”

“No!” Jisung says quickly.

“You don’t want to be friends?” Mark asks, dejected.

“No! I’d love being friends and- ummm, maybe more?” He clears up, red like a tomato.

“Yeah, that would be great!” Mark says and they both smile happily.

After that, they ditch the last hour of tutoring in order to go on a little date at a cute coffee shop close to their school, where they just talked about themselves and got to know each other past their first impressions.

And the next day they showed up at DREAM’s lunch table holding hands. Jaemin attached himself to Jisung claiming that he was now his son; Jeno welcomed him with his warmest smile — when his eyes forms little crescent moons; Chenle screamed in delight that they finally have someone that’s the same age as him in the group; and Renjun and Donghyuck team up to tease Mark about his blushed cheeks, and maybe Mark didn’t really care about it. He was just happy that his little group was finally complete, and maybe he knew that things were going to be better than ever.

**Author's Note:**

> sooo that was it!  
> i actually wanted to write some other things like their boss fight but i knew it woudn't fit in the word limit so it decided to stop it there...  
> not really important but if anyone's wondering their classes:  
> mark is a tanker  
> jisung is a rogue  
> jaemin is a monster tamer/summoner  
> jeno is an warrior  
> renjun is a healer  
> haechan is a mage
> 
> i hope you enjoyed and please leave a comment below with your thoughts over the fic!  
> also now that reaveals are out, come find me on twitter! i don't talk much but i'm nice i think :D  
>  twitter! 


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